In case you missed the official opening of the park yesterday, here’s a little slideshow. My favorite moment of the whole thing was turning around during the pomp and circumstances and ribbon cutting, etc. and seeing two guys sitting at one of the new tables playing chess. They were oblivious to everything else going on. That’s the Clark Park we know and love. The new look is great and functional, but the people make the place.

“Local” is all the rage these days. Local food, local beer, shopping local. A celebration of the local begins Saturday in West Philly as the University City District puts on the first “Sustainable Saturday.”

This Saturday’s theme is “Grow it Yourself” and features a self-guided tour of community gardens in West Philly and a “farm-to-table” trolley tour includes stops at Walnut Hill Community Farm, Milk & Honey Market, and Farm 51, chats with local growers and sellers and a dinner made with local ingredients.

The day kicks off, of course, with the Clark Park Farmers ‘ Market, which will be back to normal now that the “A” section of the park is open again.

Here are some details on the rest of the day:

Noon – 1 p.m. • Foraging for Edible Plants

USciences Lower Mill Creek Garden (43rd and Chester). A few folks from Wild Foodies from Philly will talk about foraging for edible and medicinal plants.

Noon to 1 p.m. • Creating an Urban Homestead

Farm 51 (51st and Chester). Learn about what you can and can’t do in your backyard as well as the basics of keeping vegetables and animals in the city.

Noon to 1 p.m. • Irrigating With Stormwater

Walnut Hill Community Farm (Ludlow Street between 46th and Farragut – near the 46th Street El stop). The farm has an innovative solar-powered stormwater irrigation system. Come hear how you can rig up a stormwater system in your yard.

1 p.m. to 2 p.m. • Sustainable Landscaping

Chester Avenue Community Garden (on Chester between 47th and 48th). A workshop on edible landscaping with Phil Forsyth of Forsyth Gardens and the Philadelphia Orchard Project.

2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. • Ice Cream Tour and Tasting at Bartram’s Garden

Bartram’s Garden (54th and Lindbergh). This one is a no-brainer. You get to forage around Bartram’s Garden for a little while and then make ice cream with what you have found. This also includes a tour. Tickets are $10 for adults/$8 for students and seniors/Free with a Bartram Pass. You pay when you get there. But you still need to RSVP here.

3 p.m. to 7 p.m. • Philly Homegrown West Philadelphia Farm to Trolley Tour

Paul Steinke of the Reading Terminal Market will host the tour. Participants will get a chance to see urban farming and beekeeping in action and sample locally grown foods. The tour concludes at the MidAtlantic Tap Room and Restaurant (3711 Market St.) for a dinner made with locally grown ingredients. Tickets are $45. RSVP here.

Other Sustainable Saturdays will be held July 16, August 20 and September 17.

Community members (and they mean everybody) are invited to the Henry C. Lea School (47th and Locust) on Saturday for its first ever Community Fun Day, which will include music, dancing, vendors and a bunch of family stuff.

The day kicks off at 10 a.m. Now this day is not all about fun and games (though it mostly is). The school is looking for some volunteers to help paint. The painting is part of an ongoing project to transform the inside aesthetic of Lea. To help out write: leacommunity [at] gmail.com or call Yvette at 917-602-7998.

Oh, and did we mention that there will be a bounce house?

Proceeds from the community day will also help offset the costs of a new playground.

The Lea School will also unveil their new t-shirts during the fun day, which principal Dr. Lisa Bell-Chiles has approved as a school uniform option for students. The t-shirts will be available in child and adult sizes and sport the phrase “We are Fami-LEA,” a play off the famous Sister Sledge tune (just try getting that song out of your head now).
 

The day that many of us have been waiting a long time for has arrived. Early this morning the fences came down at Clark Park “A” and it didn’t take long for people to pour in with books, coffee, kids and dogs in tow.

The official opening ceremony is today at 4 p.m.

A few things still need to be worked out, such as how best to accommodate the chess players that have dueled in the park for years. The biggest visible change, of course, is the graveled round open space where the flag pole (and a lot of mud) used to be.

Several orange cafe-style tables and chairs will be distributed around the space. They will be locked to one another to help prevent theft.

Today is a great day for the opening. The weather is nice and the Thursday farmer’s market starts at 3 p.m. So get out there and take it all in.

Are Baltimore Avenue and Spruce Street in West Philly among the worst places in the city to ride a bike?

The good folks at the Philadelphia Weekly think so. In “The Five Best (and Worst) places to Bike in Philly,” writer Daniel Denvir pans the two streets because of the proximity of parked cars to bike lanes. He writes of Baltimore Avenue:

Baltimore Avenue, the main drag of queer, anarchist, vegan, crusty West Philly? It couldn’t be—but it is! I know two people who have had car doors opened into them, one of whom broke her collarbone. A sleepy side street where you can bike down the middle of the road may be slower than a big street bike lane, but it is always safer to bike without parked cars immediately to your right.

First, we have no problem with queer, anarchist, vegan or crusty (that’s one of the reasons why we live here) but, dude, have you been to West Philly lately?

Baltimore and Spruce (along with Kensington Avenue and “all those bike lanes next to parked cars”) rank fourth on the list of the worst behind the Ben Franklin Parkway, Girard Avenue and Greys Ferry Bridge.

We’re not sure if they are among the worst streets in the city. But getting doored does suck.
 

The Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA), an integral player in the formation of the Penn Alexander School more than 10 years ago, agreed last night to draft a statement  calling on the school to admit every child in first grade and above who lives in the school’s catchment area.

Parents new to the neighborhood and those with young children have been dismayed about the refusal of the school to admit many children even though they live within the school’s coveted catchment area. Several people who attended last night’s SHCA board meeting, as well as one association board member, shared stories about children who were not admitted and their frustration about not knowing how to proceed for the coming school year.

School and district officials have said that the school’s lower grades are at capacity, prompting them to advise many parents, even those with siblings already attending the school, to investigate other options. The SHCA board agreed that the policy was unjust.

Longtime Spruce Hill Community Association board member Barry Grossbach said it is the association’s obligation to pressure the school to accept any child who lives inside the catchment boundaries.

“I think we need to be very clear that kids who live within the catchment area need to go to the school,” Grossbach said. “This was the expectation that we had when the school was formed and that is the expectation we have now.”

Board members hope that the statement will help prompt a more open discussion about the enrollment policy, which so far is a mystery to most parents.

Most parents have tolerated a kindergarten enrollment cap because kindergarten is not required in Pennsylvania. But now the cap is being applied to the lower grades. Registration for those grades begins August 15 and many parents new to the neighborhood are unsure if their children will be admitted.

West Philly resident Monica Calkins spoke at the meeting on behalf of a new community organization confronting the enrollment issue at the school. The group, Advocates for Great Elementary Education (AGREE), officially formed last month after several parents commiserated about the lack of information coming from the school.

Like many parents who live in the Penn Alexander catchment, Calkins wants answers.

“We have a lot of questions,” she said.

Some of issues the group hopes to have clarified:

• Extent of the overcrowding at the school.
• The process for determining an enrollment cap.
• Penn’s position on the overcrowding issue.
• Whether other measures, such as temporary classrooms, have been considered.

A key question that many are asking is whether the influx of students to the school is a temporary surge in the population that might be relieved by temporary classroom space similar to what is being done at some crowded schools in Northeast Philadelphia.

AGREE also echoes many residents’ fears about “downstream effects” of the enrollment cap, including a drop in real estate prices.

Property sales, which surged after the school was built, have reportedly already begun to reflect the confusion and anxiety over admission to the school.

Realtor Melani Lamond told SHCA board members last night that if the enrollment policy is not cleared up soon real estate sales will likely drop further and prospective homebuyers will look to buy elsewhere.

“I guarantee you this will be a one-time problem if there is no guarantee that their kids will get into the school,” said Lamond.

School officials have advised some parents to investigate other neighborhood schools, including Henry C. Lea School (4700 Locust St.), which has seen a surge in community interest in recent months.

Many parents who live inside the catchment have said that they would consider Lea, but first want a definitive answer to whether their child might have a chance to get into Penn Alexander.